APK

apk:
APK is an abbreviation of: General Periodic Inspection. The APK is mandatory. With the APK, road safety is increased and environmental problems must be resolved. New cars that run on petrol must be inspected after 4 years from the first registration date. Then 2x every 2 years, and then every year again. New cars that run on diesel or LPG must be inspected for the first time after 3 years, and then again every year. Cars older than 30 years only need to be inspected every 2 years. Cars from before 1960 do not need to be inspected at all.

The inspection report, which is given after each MOT, states when the inspection has expired. When this date is exceeded, the vehicle may be parked on the public road until 2 months after this date, without being allowed to be driven (except to the APK station). After these 2 months, the car will have to be suspended and not visibly parked on a private property. If the car is not suspended, the owner will automatically receive a fine after 2 months.

The MOT is a snapshot, and therefore does not guarantee that the car will not break down for the rest of the year. At the time of the inspection, the car is good enough to safely participate in traffic at that time (snapshot). The APK can be performed by garages or the RDW (Rijksdienst Wegverkeer). Garages must have a permit and have trained staff for this. When an MOT is deregistered by a garage, there is a chance that a random check will be made via the RDW. The car is then checked again by RDW personnel. These random checkers check whether the garage has correctly approved or rejected the car. If a defect is found during a random check that the garage has overlooked, the garage will receive penalty points. With a certain number of penalty points, the garage can even be temporarily denied the APK for, for example, a number of months. It is therefore not possible to test during that time.

A car is checked on many points. Here's a "small selection" of the controls:

• Tires (minimum 1,6mm profile, below that is rejected. With 2,5mm or less profile, there will be a note on the registration certificate as AC (advice point). In addition, there are also checks for hairline cracks or large cracks where canvas (metal) visible in the tire, or metal parts such as nails, etc.
• Braking performance (check braking deceleration on the brake tester)
• Exhaust gas measurement (Petrol 4 gas measurement, Diesel soot measurement)
• Headlamp height (and working adjuster if fitted)
• Lighting
• Belts
• Mounting the battery
• Shock absorbers (leaks etc.)
• Springs (break)
• Rust on certain body parts and brake lines
• Brake hoses
• Rubbers / covers

There are many more points, but there is also an APK book of a few hundred pages for that. This can also be consulted on the RDW website.